also a skull and horns, in the “kitchen midden” of the largest of the lake dwellings in Loughrea, Co. Galway, measuring over 13 feet from tip to tip of the antlers;[5] whilst in the refuse heap at Breagho, Co. Fermanagh, portion of an antler (according to the opinion of Professor Owen) was discovered, sawn and perforated with holes. It does not necessarily follow that this relic had belonged to an animal killed and utilized by the lake-dwellers; the horn may have been found by them on some spot where it had rested for ages. However, in the lake-dwelling at Cloonfinlough, Co. Roscommon, bones of the _Megaceros Hibernicus_ have been dug up in a very broken state, as if fractured for the purpose of extracting the marrow, whilst remains of the _Megaceros_, in company with a greenstone celt, were discovered in a cave at Cappagh, the bones broken and formed into implements by the hands of man.[6] In Lough Gur, Co. Limerick, wherein is the site of a lake dwelling, remains of the _Cervus tarandus_, or reindeer,[7] were found, together with those of the bear; and near Ballybetagh, Co. Dublin, similar remains were associated with those of the _Megaceros_, whilst elsewhere bones of the _Cervus alces_, or true elk, have been exhumed, and traces of the mammoth, _Elephas primigenius_, have been found near Dungannon. _Climatic Changes._--If reliance can be placed on the accounts of classical writers, it would appear that two thousand years ago an excessive degree of cold prevailed in the climate of Europe. The great number and extent, of forests, lakes, and morasses, which according to classical authors existed in their time, must have rendered the climate of Europe exceedingly cold and moist. The forests have nearly all been felled, the stagnant water drained, thus producing a very considerable difference between the temperature described as existing in these latitudes 2000 years ago and in the present day. What occurred on the Continent occurred also in Ireland, which, shaded with forests and abounding in marshes, must have had an atmosphere more frigid than if its soil were then, as now, freely exposed to solar influence. Claudian applied to Ireland the epithet ‘icy’: Strabo looked on it as a country scarcely habitable; Mela described the climate as cold and unfavourable: however, to counterbalance these authorities, it may be inferred from Tacitus that Ireland was considered milder in climate than Gaul; in that point of view Æthicus says it was superior to Britain, and Solinus states that it abounded in pastures. Owing to the disappearance of Erin’s former leafy mantle, and the absence of pestilential exhalations from stagnant fens, the summers have become much _colder_ and the winters _warmer_ than in remote times.